New Zealanders' travel anxiety worse than others, says report

Its not surprise that travel is more stressful post-pandemic, but NZers report higher levels of anxiety. Photo / Engin Akyurt, Unsplash

Reports that Australian tourists were more ready to hop on a transtasman flight than Kiwis confirmed a feeling that New Zealanders have some hesitancy towards overseas travel.

Last Friday, Tourism Industry Aotearoa revealed that, since the opening of quarantine-free flights roughly 10000 more travellers had arrived in New Zealand than departed for Australia.

Although we saw around a fifth of our historic average inbound travel, the TIA's chief executive Chris Roberts said that the confidence of inbound travellers was only growing.

"Hopefully, the early success of the bubble will give people confidence to travel for leisure, Roberts told the Herald.

"Many of our Australian neighbours will be needing an adventure by now, and it's great to see some are already heading over to enjoy themselves."

Yet outbound travel was stymied, with more Kiwis opting for a staycation. According to a new research New Zealanders are suffering more overseas travel anxiety than our neighbours across the Ditch, and elsewhere.

59 per cent of New Zealanders reported stress around planning international travel. This angst has been putting us off hitting the "book now" button.

According to the research commissioned by the bookings website Expedia, over a third (33 per cent) of New Zealand travellers planned to put off international travel for at least 12 months.

Understandably given the disruption to travel last year and the ongoing pandemic in many parts of the world, travel has become more difficult to plan, wherever you start your journey.

New Zealanders, however, are visibly more concerned than other nations. Particularly in Australia, where only 47 per cent of reported feeling the travel jitters.

Insular New Zealand's prolonged lockdown has left many Kiwis cautious about the great travel restart.

Around 50 per cent of Singaporeans reported feeling similar travel anxiety.

However, few countries are more distrustful of international flights than the USA. Expedia reported 80 per cent of Americans, were stressed out by the thought of going abroad.

"It's going to take time for travellers to adjust to a post-pandemic life and the new norms that this may entail," said Nisreene Atassi global head of communications for Expedia "We want to make sure we are there for them, every step of the way."

Among the other trends Expedia predicts that we will all become more risk averse. Unsurprisingly 40 per cent of travellers worldwide say they are less likely to travel somewhere new, and 35 per cent now say they would not book accommodation without any online reviews.

However, one way in which all travellers have loosened up a bit is in the booking window. 31 per cent of travellers now report booking holidays closer to departure or last minute.